Votes this week in Colorado and Washington to allow adult marijuana possession have the federal government questioning its next move.

Associated Press file photo

Votes this week in Colorado and Washington to allow adult marijuana possession have the federal government questioning its next move.

DENVER – Should marijuana be treated like alcohol? Or should it remain in the same legal category as heroin and the most dangerous drugs? Votes this week by Colorado and Washington to allow adult marijuana possession have prompted what could be a turning point in the nation’s conflicted and confusing war on drugs.

Colorado’s governor and attorney general spoke by phone Friday with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, with no signal whether the U.S. Justice Department would sue to block the marijuana measures. Both states are holding off on plans to regulate and tax the drug while waiting to see whether the Justice Department would assert federal authority over drug law.

Meanwhile, prosecutors in Washington’s largest counties dropped all pending misdemeanor cases of marijuana possession Friday in response to that state’s vote to legalize the drug.

The Obama administration has largely turned a blind eye to the 17 states that currently flout federal drug law by allowing people with certain medical conditions to use pot, something that is banned under federal law.

A spokesman for Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said during Friday’s talks state officials asked Holder for the federal government’s response to the marijuana vote but didn’t get one.

The Colorado officials “emphasized the need for the federal government to articulate what its position will be. ... Everyone shared a sense of urgency and agreed to continue talking about the issue,” spokesman Eric Brown wrote in an email. No date for further talks was announced, he said.

Hickenlooper opposed the ballot measure and has downplayed the likelihood of a commercial marijuana market materializing in Colorado. “If it’s still illegal under federal law, I can’t imagine that 7-Eleven is ever going to sell it,” he said earlier this week.

Denver prosecutors are still reviewing pending marijuana possession cases in Colorado’s largest city, and Denver City Attorney Doug Friednash said it was too soon to say whether small possession cases would be tossed.

But Friednash said the marijuana vote “obviously creates an issue with respect with even obtaining favorable verdicts in these cases.”

In Washington state, a spokesman for Gov. Chris Gregoire said this week that Gregoire would respect the will of the people.

“We are entering uncharted waters and many questions lie ahead as we work to implement this law,” said spokesman Cory Curtis. “Because marijuana is still illegal at the federal level, we are unsure how the federal government will proceed.”

If Colorado’s marijuana ballot measure is not blocked, it would take effect by Jan. 5, the deadline for the governor to add the amendment to the state constitution. The measure allows adults to possess up to an ounce of marijuana, and six marijuana plants, though public use of the drug and driving while intoxicated are prohibited.

Colorado’s measure also directs lawmakers to write regulations on how pot can be sold, with commercial sales possible by 2014.